


8-Ball

by MistralSoul



Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Aged up characters, Gen, and Duke too lol, background fluri, domestic AU, onesided Duke/Yuri, rated T for teens thanks to Yuri Lowell
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:27:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25718794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistralSoul/pseuds/MistralSoul
Summary: [Collection] Ask an 8-Ball a question and it’ll respond with something that may or may not be applicable to the question. Ask Karol’s housemates and its basically an 8-Ball but with so many more answers. So what’s a 16 year old supposed to do as he navigates this wild ride known as life? Ask a question, of course.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 9





	8-Ball

**Author's Note:**

> Whoa, I never expected to write this fic. But the same Zelloyd server that got me to write my Symphonia fic reminded me this fic existed, so I wanted to write it. Then I asked the general tales server I frequent “what would Duke do in a modern au?” And it just... escalated to a mess I’m in love with. Eventually we’ll get to what those two tags mean. For now, enjoy the madness.

_Again_ , Karol thought to himself as he saw a patch of facial hair too big for a pair of tweezers. Not like he was going to make that mistake again though - the first time he noticed facial hair on him, “baby hairs” as Yuri called it, he thought it would be safer to take a pair of tweezers to it than a razer. He only continued with it because he couldn’t find a razor at all in the bathroom and chants from Yuri, who walked in randomly, encouraged him on. Karol could still hear the chants that accompanied the pain - from generic “let’s go Karol let’s go” complete with the claps and “winner not a quitter” - chants that only continued once the deed had been done and his chin felt like it had been punched and stabbed. To be fair, Yuri did help him take care of the pain, but it only served as a reminder not to do it ever again, especially not if Yuri was cheering him on. That was just a bad sign entirely.

Especially since Karol had never seen Yuri shave. Not once in all the years the two of them have been living in this crazy house with the others. It was always Raven and Flynn Karol saw shave, and even then Raven was on very rare occasions. But Yuri always looked like never grew a hair, not even once. So maybe that’s why his shaving advice was “just yank it out” instead of something actually helpful. _Note to self_ , Karol thought to himself, _never ask Yuri for advice on shaving._

Though, Karol supposed he did want to ask Yuri something. As crazy as that sounded. He didn’t mind growing a beard, at least not later down the line, but right now? It didn’t suit him, he hasn’t grown into it. So if there was something Yuri was doing to prevent that… Well, he wanted answers.

Karol stepped out of the bathroom and into the hallway, up the stairs that lead him to the hallway that contained most of their rooms. Yuri’s room was the furthest from the stairs, so Karol made his way over there and opened the door, only to reveal no one. Did he go out for errands? Nah, that wasn’t like him. Errands were Flynn’s job so they all had a healthy diet and necessities. But speaking of Flynn, he probably had the razors. If there were any razors in this house. So Karol makes his way over to Flynn’s room, the one on the left from the stairs, and knocks. There’s no answer. Great, they’re probably both running errands. Karol slumps on the floor next to Flynn’s door, bringing his knees up to his chin and sighing. It was Sunday, albeit Sunday morning so he had about twelve hours to get the mini beard sorted, but it was still Sunday. If Nan saw him like this…

Who was he kidding, if anyone saw him like this…

As soon as he thought that, Flynn’s door swung wide open with such a vigor it could only be one person.

And that one person took note of him and stared him in the eye.

“You… you heard nothing, right?” Yuri asked, his eyes darting away from Karol.

“I dunno, should I’ve heard something?”

Yuri tensed up, before Flynn walked up to Yuri. “Oh hi Karol! What’s the matter?” Flynn asked, resting his hand on Yuri’s shoulder which makes Yuri jump a bit.

“Is Yuri okay?” Karol asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. This had to involve Flynn. And maybe, just maybe, Karol could get something on Yuri as payback for the tweezers.

“It’s nothing you wouldn’t understand,” Yuri muttered, crossing his arms and tuning his face away from Karol, only to immediately turn it again in the opposite direction.

“I mean…” Karol trailed off, noting how Flynn was shaking his head. With a sigh, Karol decided to speak what was on his mind instead. “Fine, I just, need to shave… But there are no razors?”

With a laugh, Yuri responded “Karol, you’re sixteen right? You don’t need a razor - you need a sword.”

“A what?” Karol asked, his voice deadpan.

“You know, a swo-”

“This is why I hide the razors,” Flynn said with a sigh.

“We had razors?” Yuri said almost simultaneously with Karol.

With a sigh, Flynn walked down the stairs with Karol and Yuri following behind. Without even looking behind him, Flynn took a jab at Yuri. “No, you are not following, I don’t want these razors to be destroyed for your entertainment.”

“Hey! I was just going down to get milk, nothing more.”

“Then we’ll leave you in the kitchen.”

With a huff, Yuri stayed behind as Flynn lead Karol down to the basement, past Raven’s room and into their makeshift entertainment room. Right behind the flat-screen TV was a battery box that held both batteries for the remote along with really fancy razors.

“I normally hide these from everyone once a week since they cost a fortune, but you’re welcome to use them - just don’t tell Yuri or Raven.”

Karol nodded and takes the razor Flynn held out to him. It was hefty, had a nice grip, and wasn’t cheap like Karol expected them to have.

“Why don’t we have any cheaper razors though?”

“Because Yuri is a heathen,” Flynn responded, sighing as he does so. “The moment he got that sword he stopped doing things normally.”

“Wait,” Karol started, thinking back to what Yuri had said earlier. He thought that was a joke, not something Yuri actually did.

“Yeah, don’t ask where though he refuses to tell.”

Karol gave a slight smile while putting that on his mental check-list of things to ask Yuri.

Either way, regardless of the sword, Karol finally had a way to shave.

With a smile, Karol thanked Flynn and headed upstairs to the bathroom to finally get rid of that fuzzy spot on his face. He was saved, no one would make fun of him. Thank god.


End file.
